And love is of the
beautiful, and therefore has not the beautiful. And the beautiful is the
good, and therefore, in wanting and desiring the beautiful, love also wants
and desires the good. Socrates professes to have asked the same questions
and to have obtained the same answers from Diotima, a wise woman of
Mantinea, who, like Agathon, had spoken first of love and then of his
works. Socrates, like Agathon, had told her that Love is a mighty god and
also fair, and she had shown him in return that Love was neither, but in a
mean between fair and foul, good and evil, and not a god at all, but only a
great demon or intermediate power (compare the speech of Eryximachus) who
conveys to the gods the prayers of men, and to men the commands of the
gods.
Socrates asks: Who are his father and mother? To this Diotima replies
that he is the son of Plenty and Poverty, and partakes of the nature of
both, and is full and starved by turns. Like his mother he is poor and
squalid, lying on mats at doors (compare the speech of Pausanias); like his
father he is bold and strong, and full of arts and resources.
Pages:
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35